My Dream Luxury Sedan Just Ghosted Me – Now What?

As a motoring enthusiast, one is always on the lookout for their next set of wheels. Add a little daydreaming into the equation, and it is easy to see how a sedan enthusiast could fall for the Rolls-Royce Ghost, isn’t it?

It has timeless looks that might trick the average Joe into thinking that they are looking at the bigger and much more expensive Phantom, and unlike its sibling, you can actually drive it around on your own without looking ridiculous. It is only a bit bigger than the latest BMW 7 Series, with which it doesn’t share its nuts and bolts anymore, unlike the first-gen Ghost, as it is now based on a modified platform that can be found on the Phantom and Cullinan.

Factor in the fact that it is powered by a V12, and you have a winner without even mentioning the comfort, technology, luxury, and safety gizmos. With a displacement of 6.75 liters, the twin-turbo motor works in concert with an eight-speed automatic gearbox sourced from ZF and all-wheel drive. The Black Badge, which is the model that I drove, has 592 hp (600 ps / 441 kW) and 664 lb-ft (900 Nm) of torque. That’s 29 hp (29 ps / 21 kW) and 37 lb-ft (50 Nm) more than the normal Ghost. It also has blacked out exterior and interior trim, 21-inch carbon wheels, and a few other bits and bobs on top of it.

Can’t go wrong with that, can you? Actually, you can, because even if you can fork out in the region of $400,000 for a brand-new one, chances are it will disappoint you if you are a petrolhead. The ride is too stiff for a Rolls, the soundproofing could use some improvements, and the front seats are just not that comfortable. To make matters worse, the car that I spent my day with had a couple of squeaky problems that I quickly tracked down to the front door cards.

Can you imagine paying nearly half a million dollars for a luxury car and having to deal with that? On the other hand, the Rolls-Royce representative who I asked about it said that I was the only one complaining about that, so maybe, who knows, it was a problem related to a single car… On the other hand, the bigger Phantom has no such issues, and I haven’t heard about similar complaints from anyone driving the Cullinan. Thus, fingers crossed it’s an isolated incident, and the Goodwood company won’t turn into the auto marque with the three-pointed star logo, whose squeaky-plastic issue spans from the A-Class, all the way up to the Maybachs.

In theory, the Bentley Flying Spur remains the only solid choice in the luxury sedan segment today, but since I haven’t driven it, I couldn’t tell you if it is better than a Mercedes-Maybach S-Class or the Rolls-Royce Ghost. As a result, in the event I win the lottery or inherit a large sum of money, my perfect three-car garage would need an update in the daily-driving corner, because the Ghost is definitely not the car for me. So, what sedan should take its place?

Before calling it a story and moving on to the next one, what is your favorite luxury sedan and why? And would you ever consider buying a normal Audi A8, Mercedes-Benz S-Class, or BMW 7 Series if you were a millionaire, instead of spending an even crazier amount on something from the upper class?